100 Days (yep, 100) of Pattern Making.

So I've chickened out of committing to 365 days after I realised just how many things I’m itching to accomplish, and that to commit to something for 365 days there needs to be a real sense of purpose. I feel that doing something for 100 days will help me to understand where to direct my focus. 100 days is better than no days. I'd love to still participate in this class along with everyone else though!

Serendipitously, if I kick this project of on the Monday the 1st of August (first day of the week and first day of the month, how neat!) then exactly 100 days later is November 9… My birthday!! What better birthday present than such a unique sense of accomplishment.

STEP 2: What will your daily deliverable be? What will you actually bedoing every single day?Staying realistic about my own time limitations, I have decided that rather than producing a pattern every single day, I will spend a minimum of 15 minutes per day working on a pattern. Therefore my deliverable will be 15 minutes of work on a pattern per day. Tasks that I can work on include: sketching pattern ideas, fleshing out pattern dynamics, working on individual elements, vectorizing elements, finishing pattern, gathering inspiration, following tutorials on more complex techniques.

STEP 3: When will you find time in your busy schedule to fit your 100 day project?First thing in the morning. This ties into my overall life goal of being early to bed / early to rise, and also putting my drawing practise first. Literally first. Before I’ve done anything else.

STEP 4: How will you keep motivated and accountable for 100 days?My motivation is wanting to bring as many ideas as possible out of my head and into my life. Additionally, the more I make, the more ways I can apply them to physical goods. Accountability will come from the desire to check off days on my calendar, and consistently posting on Tumblr. If I find that I am doing well in maintaining a routine, I will also post my progress to Instagram.

STEP 5: What will you do for the first 10 days?Day 1 - Organize 100 day wall calendar, get the Tumblr up to scratch, gather some inspo on Pinterest.Day 2 - Write out a bunch of themes / ideas.Day 3 - Sketch concept for pattern #1.Day 4 - Flesh out pattern #1 (how all the elements work together).Days 5, 6, 7, 8 - Finalise drawing of individual elements.Days 9 & 10 - Begin vectorizing individual elements.

STEP 6: Why is this important to you? What’s going to keep you going all the way until day 100?I have so many ideas, and I desperately want to bring as many as possible to life… Mostly so I can move onto the next lot of ideas. This will be an enormous stepping stone in me building up enough work of a good enough quality that I can finally upload to Society 6, RedBubble, etc. as well as creating products for my own shop.Ultimately I’d love to be able to produce my own textiles, and be able to rock shirts, pants, etc. with my personality and work all over them. I will keep going because I am desperate to develop the art of consistency which is so crucial to pursuing my professional goals.